Uzbekistan tours from Switzerland: visa-free entry, flights from Zurich and Geneva and the best weeks of 2027

Neither Zurich nor Geneva has a nonstop flight to Tashkent, but Frankfurt, Munich, Milan and Paris do, and the hop from Zurich to Frankfurt takes about an hour. At passport control in Tashkent, your Swiss passport is all you need: up to 30 days in Uzbekistan without a visa. We are a tour operator in Tashkent, and this is our guide to Uzbekistan tours from Switzerland: entry rules for Swiss citizens, connections from Zurich and Geneva, the best weeks around your 2027 holidays, and a woman from Geneva who crossed this country alone in 1932. More for German, French and Italian speakers is in our guides to Uzbekistan tours from Germany, France and Italy.

Entry for Swiss citizens: 30 days without a visa

Citizens of Switzerland enter Uzbekistan without a visa and can stay for up to 30 days, counted from the day they cross the border. The Swiss Confederation has been on the list of visa-free countries since 1 February 2019. For a longer stay, or to work, you need a visa before you travel.

Travel on your passport. It must be valid for the whole trip, and we recommend at least six months left on the day you fly. For a holiday of up to 30 days there is nothing to apply for in advance.

Every foreign visitor is registered within three days of arrival. Hotels do it at check-in through the national E-mehmon system, so in a hotel you do nothing yourself. For nights in a yurt camp or a village home, we check in advance how it is done there. Keep the registration slips until you fly home. Details are in our article on registration and customs and in our visa guide.

Take out travel insurance that covers medical treatment in Uzbekistan for every day of the trip, and keep the policy number and the insurer’s emergency line on your phone. While you travel, our office in Tashkent is reachable 24/7.

From Zurich and Geneva: one change

There are no nonstop flights from Zurich or Geneva to Tashkent in the current timetable. The nearest nonstop flights leave from four airports around Switzerland:

• Frankfurt. Uzbekistan Airways, Qanot Sharq and Centrum Air, about 6 h 20 min. SWISS and Lufthansa fly to Frankfurt in about an hour from Zurich and in 1 h 15 min from Geneva.
• Munich. Uzbekistan Airways, about 6 h 20 min.
• Milan Malpensa. Uzbekistan Airways, leaving at 19:45 and landing in Tashkent at 06:00.
• Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Uzbekistan Airways, leaving at 18:50 and landing at 05:45, after 6 h 55 min.

The other usual route is through Istanbul. Turkish Airlines flies there from both Zurich and Geneva in about three hours, and from Istanbul Turkish Airlines, Uzbekistan Airways, Centrum Air and Qanot Sharq fly on to Tashkent. Days and times change between the winter and summer timetables, so check yours when you book. More routes are in our guide to flights to Uzbekistan.

Tashkent is on UTC+5 all year, with no summer time: four hours ahead of Zurich in winter, three in summer. Many flights land late in the evening or at dawn, so we plan the first night around your arrival. We can also arrange fast-track passport control and a car to your hotel.

Ella Maillart: from Geneva to Khiva in 1932

Ella Maillart was born in Geneva in 1903, and at the 1924 Olympic regatta in Paris she sailed for Switzerland, the only woman in the competition. In 1932 she travelled from Moscow to the Tien Shan, in today’s Kyrgyzstan, climbed a peak of some 5,000 metres on makeshift skis and then went on alone. Her route led through Samarkand and Bukhara, by boat down the Amu Darya to Khiva, and by camel north along the edge of the Kyzylkum desert.

Her book about the journey, Des monts Célestes aux sables Rouges, came out in Paris in 1934; in English it is Turkestan Solo. Her photographs are kept at Photo Elysée in Lausanne. In the summer of 2023 a selection of her pictures of Uzbekistan in the 1930s, from Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and Karakalpakstan, was shown in Samarkand, in an exhibition prepared with Photo Elysée and the Embassy of Switzerland.

She was not the first Swiss connection here. In 1894 the mountaineer Willi Rickmer Rickmers, who later joined the Akademischer Alpen-Club Zürich, came to Samarkand and Bukhara; his story is in our guide for travellers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Today you can see Maillart’s cities in comfort, by high-speed train and with a night inside the walls of Khiva.

Uzbekistan tours from Switzerland: routes for 8 to 12 days

You book the flight, and we arrange everything on the ground: hotels, train tickets, guides and transfers, timed to your arrival. Your guide speaks German, French or Italian, and that is included in the price: just tell us your language when you book.

The classic week, 8 days. Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva on our 8-day classic tour. How we lay out such a week is in Uzbekistan in 7 days.

Maillart’s cities with a camera, 12 days. Our Uzbekistan photo tour goes through Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva and is planned around the light, with free afternoons. To go on west into Karakalpakstan, add five days among the desert fortresses of Khorezm, with a night in a yurt camp and the Savitsky Museum in Nukus.

On foot and by rail, 10 days. On the Silk Road on foot and by rail you walk through every old town with your guide, take the high-speed trains in between and spend a day in the Chimgan mountains. For longer hikes, see our hiking tour of Chimgan, Nuratau and Samarkand and the guide to hiking in Uzbekistan.

Two half-days that work in any route: a mountain hike with a guide and a picnic near Tashkent, and a wine tasting at Bagizagan in the Samarkand countryside. Not sure which route fits your dates? Try our tour finder.

When to go: Swiss school holidays and public holidays in 2027

In Switzerland each canton sets its own school holidays, and in the canton of Zurich each school municipality does, so check your own calendar. The examples below are from the official calendars of the cantons of Zurich and Geneva.

Sports holidays in February. In Zurich they last two weeks and the dates differ from one municipality to the next; the city’s Kantonsschulen are off from 15 to 27 February 2027. In Geneva the February break runs from 15 to 19 February. Tashkent afternoons average 9.5 °C in February, and nights are around zero, so bring a warm coat. If you would rather have snow, there is our ski weekend in the mountains near Tashkent. More in Uzbekistan in February.

Easter and spring. Easter Sunday falls on 28 March 2027. Geneva schools are off from 26 March to 9 April; in Zurich the spring holidays usually fall in weeks 16 and 17 or 17 and 18, and the Kantonsschulen are off from 26 April to 8 May. Tashkent averages 22 °C in the afternoon in April and 28 °C in May: the best weeks of the year for the cities and for walking. Ascension, Thursday 6 May, and Whit Monday, 17 May, make two long weekends. See April and May.

Summer. The Zurich summer holidays cover weeks 29 to 33, from 19 July to 21 August 2027 at the Kantonsschulen, and 1 August falls on a Sunday. In July Tashkent averages 35.9 °C in the afternoon, against 26.2 °C at Chimgan, so we plan the cities for mornings and evenings and add days in the mountains.

Autumn. The Zurich autumn holidays fall in weeks 41 and 42, from 11 to 23 October 2027 at the Kantonsschulen; in Geneva they run from 25 to 29 October. October afternoons in Tashkent average 22 °C, and the walking season in the mountains continues. See Uzbekistan in October and when to go.

Money, plugs and your phone

• Cards. Visa and Mastercard work at most terminals in city hotels, restaurants, shops and stations, and many ATMs give out so’m on them. Bazaars, villages and small shops often take cash only.
• Swiss francs. On 18 October 2026, 13 Uzbek banks listed buying rates for the franc, from 12,000 to 14,640 so’m, and 15 banks listed rates for the euro. Francs can be changed, but compare rates first. Change money only at banks and official exchange offices, with your passport. See where to exchange currency and cards, cash and tipping.
• Plugs. Sockets are types C and F at 230 V. Swiss three-pin type J plugs do not fit; the flat two-pin type C does. Bring an adapter.
• Phone. Roaming works, and a local SIM card is issued against your passport; read bringing a phone to Uzbekistan first.
• Water. Drink bottled water: it is sold everywhere, in many brands.

In short

• Swiss passport: up to 30 days in Uzbekistan without a visa; registration is done by your hotel.
• From Zurich and Geneva, one change: in Frankfurt, Munich, Milan, Paris or Istanbul.
• The best weeks are the spring holidays in April and May and the autumn holidays in October.
• Pay by card in the cities, compare rates before you change francs, and bring a plug adapter.
• Your guide speaks German, French or Italian, included in the price.